You Are More

You Are More by Tenth Avenue North

But don't you know who you are?

What has been done for you

Yeah, don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes

You are more than the problems you create

You've been remade

Cause this is not about what you've done

But what's been done for you

This is not about where you've been

But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about  what you feel

But what He felt to forgive you

And what He felt to make you loved...

Forgiveness can't be earned.

All that's been done, all that wants doing and all that will be will never come close to earning it.

But even through all the brokenness and dirt, it has been assured, if only we'd acknowledge it.

Love and forgiveness is given, because He wants to.

Because you are more.

Hello, Darkness

Hello darkness, my old friend

Now, stand, again you are here

We parted, you left and were gone

Is it as bad as I fear?

No, old friend, it is not bad

You don't remember my words

Complacency made you fat

No, not bad, it is much worse

My lessons you've forgotten

Your wounds are gone, your scars healed

Love again you've now gotten

The holes in your heart are filled

So here I am, here I stand

It is time to walk this bend

Better now, while still you stand

Better now while still you can

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

A Photo

A photo, can say a thousand things

But they can't say the million things

I wanna say.

No, it can't.

But a photo can remind you of a smile.

It can remind you of that second in time when everything was perfect.

It can remind me of a time when we felt most alive.

It can remind me of you.

Open Doors

I believe in Divine Intervention, in a God who is personal and so madly in love with you that He wants to be a part of your everyday life. I believe that  He has given me a map for my adventures and all the future random ramblings of my life.

I also believe that He open doors for me; gateways into whole new adventures in my life.

And yet, often I don't even realise it is happening, that I've left the old room and have already stepped into a new one, a whole new adventure. And I bemoan the fact that things are not the way they are anymore. That I don't like this new experience, that why can't I have the old and comfortable and the used and the holey.

Sometimes, He doesn't open the door for you. He locks the door. He lets you stay in that one place, where it eventually becomes boring and uninteresting and uninspiring and mundane. And I rant and wail and pray my eyes out but to no avail. Why? Isn't He a God who opens doors?

Ah, but did it ever occur to you that He keeps you there because there is a lesson there that you have not learned yet? That there is an unexplored corner in the room, waiting for you, but in your want and haste to exit the room you don't see it. He keeps you there because He has a lesson for you for that particular season that He wants to teach. So the sooner you learn it, the better.

So when (not if, when) the door opens for you, walk through and enjoy the new room. I miss the old rooms, the old experiences but dwelling on the fact may hinder me from having my full experience in the new room. Before He opens another door - the exit from this one - I will have fun and squeeze it dry.

'...Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'

1 Cor 15:32 (NIV)

You've Got a Friend In Me

A friend of mine, Andrea, wrote this a few weeks back. I remember feeling very strongly about it when I first read it. I still do when I read it now.

And so, here's to all of you that have disappeared and walked away from my life. Here's to those that have remained and we still walk together. Finally, here's to those who only recently started walking with me.

A ruddy drop of manly blood

The surging sea outweighs,

The world uncertain comes and goes;

The lover rooted stays.

I fancied he was fled,—

And, after many a year,

Glowed unexhausted kindliness,

Like daily sunrise there.

My careful heart was free again,

O friend, my bosom said,

Through thee alone the sky is arched,

Through thee the rose is red;

All things through thee take nobler form,

And look beyond the earth,

The mill-round of our fate appears

A sun-path in thy worth.

Me too thy nobleness had taught

To master my despair;

The fountains of my hidden life

Are through thy friendship fair.

Friendship by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lifesize

All for love,
We become larger than lifesize, wondersome
Great in the eyes of someone...


Lifesize by A Fine Frenzy

So THIS is Normal

Normal is the accepted paradigm, society's dogma that it forces down the throat of all and sundry.

How can it be 'normal' to love someone who makes you feel like you're two inches tall?

How can it be 'normal' to look at the majesty of the universe and conclude that we evolved from apes?

How can hate, lies, dog-eat-dog, judgement and control be 'normal'?

So you go on ahead and keep your normal and keep that whole spectrum.

As for me, I go to search for something that I am sure still exist in this world.

And if it doesn't, I will create it.

The Afters - Never Going Back To OK

Wild at Heart Part 1

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.

Matthew 11:12

John Eldrege started the book saying that man was born in the outback, from the untamed part of creation. This here is not another self-help book for men or boys, it is a book on masculinity, or the lack thereof. He explains why the modern man is so stifled, so incomplete. 

Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man. The masculine heart needs a place where nothing is prefabricated, modular, non-fat, zip lock, franchised, on line, microwavable. Where there are no deadlines, cell phones, or committee meetings. Where there is room for the soul. Where, finally, the geography around us corresponds to the geography of our heart.

He pointed out that society at large can't make up its mind about men...redefining masculinity into something more sensitive, safe, manageable and, well, feminine, it now berates men for not being men. He goes on to say that that's what we hold up as role models of Christian maturity: Really Nice Guys. We don't smoke, drink or swear; that's what makes us men.

I know this all may seem silly; asking Real Christian Men to smoke and drink (he never said that, he was illustrating a point) but can you see where we men have gone so horribly wrong? We tiptoe around people, afraid of saying what needs to be said, trying to be 'the nice guy', but if you and I are honest about it, we are scared. We are not trying to 'keep the peace', we are downright scared.

We all agree that we are made in the image of Almighty God. Here, I want to remind you that the God we serve is Passionate, Fierce, Wild, Dangerous, Unfettered, Free. The Jesus that I know does not tiptoe around the enemy or avoids an issue because it will 'preserve the unity of the church'. He attacks! There are so many examples in the bible. I would never have used the word gentleman to describe Jesus, He does not let His enemy retreat 'honourably'. Does this make sense to you now? We are made in the image of God, and while God is many things, Really Nice Guy is one that I have never heard attached to Him.

perspective...

I believe this to be the best answer to those three questions yet.

that thin, broken line...

No one said that it would be easy.

No one said it wouldn't bleed.

No one said you may never recover from it.

No one said the pain could be more than you can bear.

And no one said the road runs straight.

But, only that it is worth it in the end.

Because what's worth the prize is always worth the fight.

Listening to Jason Walker - Down